Former Indian opening batsman Gautam Gambhir criticized Pakistan’s captain, Babar Azam, for his timid performance against India at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad during the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. India secured a convincing 7-wicket victory, marking their third win in the tournament.
Speaking with Star Sports, Gambhir voiced his concerns about Babar’s approach, highlighting that both Mohammad Rizwan and Babar exhibited a similar, cautious style of batting. Although Babar managed to score 50 runs off 58 balls, Pakistan could only muster a total of 191 runs in their first innings.
Gambhir expressed, “Babar Azam has been extremely timid. Two batters cannot bat the same way in a partnership, one of them has to take chances. If you are playing for a fifty or your runs, you will get such results.”
He continued to assert that within Pakistan’s top three batters, there was no one capable of challenging the opposition’s bowling attack. Notably, Pakistan failed to hit a single six against India in Ahmedabad.
Gambhir pointed out the shift in Pakistan’s batting style, saying, “Babar Azam has scored a lot of runs for himself but it’s been Pakistan’s history that they have liked to bat aggressively at the start, whether it was Shahid Afridi, Imran Nazir or Taufeeq Umar, and they consolidate in the middle. However, here in the top three, there isn’t a single batter who can take on the opposition attack.”
Gautam Gambhir Criticised Babar Azam’s Poor Shot Selection
Regarding Babar’s dismissal, Gambhir characterized it as a poor shot selection, asserting that such a choice was unexpected from a world-class batsman. India’s win against Pakistan propelled them to the top of the World Cup 2023 points table, surpassing New Zealand with a superior net run rate.
He commented on Babar’s shot, saying, “It was an extremely bad shot. You don’t expect such a shot from a world-class batter. You had scored 50 runs and played nearly 60 balls, you knew there wasn’t much bounce and it was not the length where you could have played the late cut. You could have punched it.”
After successfully restricting Pakistan to 191 runs in the first innings, India comfortably chased down the target with 7 wickets in hand, thanks to half-centuries from Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer. With this defeat against India, Pakistan now shift their focus to Australia. Pakistan will face Australia on 20th October at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
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